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OUR Center shows off limits of its old space, and its hopes for the new

By Scott Rochat Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
07/12/2013 07:17:59 PM MDT

Updated:
07/12/2013 07:19:57 PM MDT

Longmont City Councilman Alex Sammoury, left, and OUR Center board member Tracey Bernett share a laugh while Bernett was leading Sammoury and other members of the council on a tour of the OUR Center's 220 Collyer St. facility Friday. The OUR Center is in the middle of a capital campaign to remodel the former Wickes Lumber property.
(
LEWIS GEYER
)

LONGMONT -- As the tour entered the Collyer Street building, the front door caught on a raised piece of pavement. Inside were the signs of a site in transition -- now-empty showrooms, barren paint patches on part of a wall, some fluff peaking out of a ceiling panel high above.

None of that mattered. Not compared to its greatest strength: space, space and more space.

That, above all else, is what the OUR Center needs.

"We could accept a lot more donations if we just had the room," said Tracy Bernett, a board member for the nonprofit emergency help organization.

Hence, the building. Once it was Wickes Lumber at 220 Collyer St. Now, the plans are to stretch it to two stories and make it a bigger, newer OUR Center; 30,000 square feet in one building, rather than 18,000 square feet scattered across five.

But new homes don't come cheap. It'll take about $4.2 million to remodel the ex-Wickes. The OUR Center has about a third of that.

Hence, the tours.

"I think this is such a neat project," Councilwoman Bonnie Finley said during part of a Friday tour for the City Council. "I wish I could quit work and just help out here -- but then I wouldn't have any money to give."

The OUR Center started in 1986 to give people in need one place to go. These days, they have five.

Clothing aid is in one building. Food assistance is in another. Administration? Still another. It's not an ideal situation for someone who needs help -- or even someone who wants to drop off a donation.

"Five different buildings in three different locations -- just from a business perspective, it's inefficient," Bernett said.

That's not a good thing when your usage is going up. About 75 percent of the OUR Center's clients are from the working poor -- folks with jobs who still can't make ends meet -- and there's been a lot more of those since recession hit in 2008. Some of the center's services have seen a 40 percent increase in those five years. Some have seen 100 percent.

And even with recovery, the demand isn't going down.

"These are the folks on the edge -- the first to need a hand, and the last to get out of the crisis," Bernett said.

OUR Center board member Tracey Bernett leads a tour of the OUR Center on Friday for Longmont City Council members. The OUR Center is in the middle of a capital campaign to raise money to remodel its property at 220 Collyer St.
(
LEWIS GEYER
)

The center's workers have their own challenges. Some are obvious, like tight storage spaces that leave little room to maneuver between the stacks of corn flakes and macaroni. Some present more subtle problems, such as the administration offices in the basement of one of the Atwood Street buildings. Tucked down a flight of stairs, the executives are effectively isolated from the programs they oversee, and could find themselves trapped if a crisis hit.

Things are a little different in the plans for the Collyer center. To start with, administration is on the second floor, where it can literally oversee the center's services, and notice any problems. Storage is up there, too, planned for the lighter items, with the heavier stuff kept at ground level.

On that first floor, consolidation is the rule of the day. Little touches show the future plans -- a table with a lunch tray in the future cafeteria, for example, or a row of nine clothes racks where the new clothing bank will be. Even the outdoor has a use; the front terraces will be home to the center's vegetable garden.

All of it's meant to have plenty of elbow room, not just now, but for the next 25 years or so. And with space can come some friendlier touches like, maybe, music.

"I used to play piano in the current OUR Center," Bernett remembered. "We had a lot of musicians there, but now there's no place to do it."

"We needed the space for tables," Salazar said.

Construction on the new space is expected to start in the second quarter of 2014; at least $1.7 million has to be raised before then. The center will hold meetings in August to discuss what to do with the old buildings; several nonprofits have expressed interest in them, Salazar said.

Those wanting to give can go online to http://tinyurl.com/oprmu3d and select "capital campaign" from the choices, or call the center at 303-772-5529 for more information. The center plans to hold public tours on July 24 and Aug. 5; call the center for more information about those or to schedule a separate tour.

"It's wonderful," Councilman Alex Sammoury said after taking the tour and reviewing plans for the new building. "Very impressive. They've done a lot of work, and I know there's a lot more to do. But they will be successful."

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